Jose Mourinho has offered his biggest hint yet that the club are lining up a marquee striker deal in the summer.

The Chelsea boss has repeatedly said the club would not be bringing in another marksman during the January window and that they thinking more long term.

“We’re preparing the next season more than this season,” he said.

“We still have a few hours of market – we did other things but not the striker. I have been saying for a couple of months we’re doing nothing in January. I think people don’t understand why we don’t do. In the summer you’ll understand.

“We know what we want. We don’t want to do things like emergency plans. It’s not our profile now.

“We know it’s difficult, but our objective is to finish in the Champions League spot. That’s the competitive objective. The great objective is the improvement of the team.

“The players we’re signing we feel are the right ones. When we bring Matic and Salah and a young kid for the future, we feel they’re the right ones for our project.

“We don’t have emergency plans. It’s not the right approach. We’re waiting for the summer to do the right thing in that area. We just know what we want and we know what we want is impossible to get in January.”